Preparatory Division

an instructional unit established a. part of higher educational institutions to raise the level of general-educational preparation of working and rural young people and to create the necessary conditions for their entry into higher schools.

Students accepted into preparatory divisions have completed their secondary education; they include advanced workers, kolkhoz members, and former members of the armed forces of the USSR. Young people are selected and sent to preparatory divisions by industrial enterprises, construction projects, transport and communications organizations, sovkhozes, kolkhozes, and military units. Those enrolling must have an unbroken work record for the entire preceding year at the enterprise, sovkhoz, kolkhoz, or other body sending them.

Enrollment in preparatory divisions is based on personal interviews. The curriculum includes disciplines for which entry examinations exist at the given higher educational institution. Students successfully completing work at the preparatory division by passing the final examinations enroll in first-year courses at higher educational institutions without taking entrance examinations.

Most higher educational institutions also offer courses preparing prospective students for the institutions’ entrance examinations; these extend up to ten months and are financially self-sustained. Students completing these courses do not enjoy any privileges when entering higher educational institutions.